Medicare Part B premiums are expected to increase by more than 50% next year, unless Congress figures out a solution. Part B is a Medicare option that covers doctors’ charges and outpatient care bills.

Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO)

Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO)

Senator Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) hasn’t offered a solution, but said the rise is due to the Affordable Care Act.

“Anybody that’s surprised by these costs and didn’t think they were going to happen when the federal government decided to so dramatically change all of healthcare without knowing what the impact would be has some second thinking to do and some explaining to do to the people we all work for,” said Blunt. “This is not the only part of healthcare that’s going up a lot. It’s going up generally a lot because of the President’s healthcare plan.”

Some Senate Democrats are exploring options to prevent the increase. If an agreement is not found soon, Democratic staffers said a freeze or other fix might be part of a year-end budget deal in Congress.

About 30% of the roughly 52 million people enrolled in Medicare could be affected by the increase. 2016’s open enrollment for Medicare is underway.